An area of ongoing research and development is in improving performance of communication over a communications network, and in particular a wireless network. Wireless networks are frequently governed by 802.11 standards. While not all networks need to use all of the standards associated with 802.11, a discussion of the standards by name, such as 802.11n provides, at least partly because the standards are well-known and documented, a useful context in which to describe issues as they relate to wireless systems.
An important aspect of providing network services in an enterprise network is utilizing two or more network connections in parallel to establish network communication between a local network at a company site (e.g., branch office, remote office, or satellite office) and the remainder of the company's larger enterprise network (e.g., company's central network, which may be located at a headquarter data center or a head office). Each network connection can vary in medium (e.g., wired or wireless), technology (e.g., 802.11, LTE, DSL, etc.), bandwidth, and/or service provider (e.g., cable, cellular, telephone, or Internet service provider). By using more than one network connection to connect a given company site (e.g., a branch router serving as a network gateway device) to the remainder company enterprise network (e.g., via a central network gateway device), the given company site can not only benefit from increased bandwidth (e.g., load-balancing, or aggregated network bandwidth provided by the multiple network connections), but also network redundancy (e.g., each network connection can serve as a fail over for another network connection).
Company sites often rely on the multiple network connections to establish one or more network tunnels with the central enterprise network, whereby the network tunnels enable a secure connection with the central enterprise network over a public network (e.g., over the Internet) and/or permit simple (data) payload delivery over different network technologies having incompatible payload delivery mechanisms (e.g., cellular, microwave, Bluetooth®, WiFi, Ethernet, Token Ring, ATM, etc.). Network tunnels are commonly used by company sites to establish a virtual private network (VPN) connection with a company's enterprise network, thereby providing the local network at the company site with transparent access to the company's largely enterprise network.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. For Example, wireless clients may use different protocols other than 802.11, potentially including protocols that have not yet been developed. However, problems associated with performance may persist. Other limitations of the relevant art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.